Fan fiction
See also: Fan fiction Role-playing simulations Star Trek role-playing (also known as simming) is a recreational activity in which fans of Star Trek adopt the character of a person in the Star Trek universe, typically on a Federation vessel. Many different groups exist for this purpose; they often use AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), or e-mail as a means of communication. Second Life also has a strong Star Trek role-playing community. Many other groups also exist on the internet, on various Star Trek MUDs and MUSHes. Multi User Dimension A MUD a general term for any text based MMORPG on the web, commonly being connected to by use of a client, such as MUSHclient. One specific breed, a MUSH, is used for role playing more than others, and thus attracts quite alot of gamers. Trek MUSHes A TrekMUSH is a MUSH, as described above, based upon the Star Trek universe. The games, almost always Role Playing games, are usualy fairly well structured, sometimes having multiple ships with multiple available crew positions. One of the largest TrekMUSHes is Star Trek: Among The Stars. Many other smaller TrekMUSHes exist as well, and are still being created, even.. In most all cases these MUSHes are non-profit games, and are not affiliated with Paramount Pictures in any way. Organization Star Trek role-playing groups range from the highly organized, with admirals, fleets of ships, large numbers of ships and members, and stringent promotion requirements, to the loosely organized, where one member has a group of friends role-play as a tight-knit group. Online groups are common. External Links *Borderlands Trek RPG - one of the oldest Star Trek RPG's on the Internet; Borderlands has an emphasis on small tight knit role playing *United Space Federation - an online role-playing group with over 20 ships, all using AIM *Federation Sim Fleet - an online role-playing group with over 600 members and 45 games on AIM, IRC, e-mail, and message boards *Starfleet Legacy Alliance - another online role-playing group with AIM, IRC, e-mail, and message board ships *Soultrek - an email based role-playing group, with four ships and a starbase to choose from *The Ongoing Mission - a play by forum Star Trek RP Sim with user friendly navigation and a great crew. They are boldly going where no RP Sim has gone before. Fan-released games FlashTrek FlashTrek is a free Flash game designed by Vex Xiang. It has gained some considerable popularity, spawning three sequels and a spin-off, FlashWars. The Original The original FlashTrek is set in an alternate timeline where the Dominion has driven the Federation and its allies back to Bajor. The wormhole has been collapsed, but it was too late. You start as a trader in a ''Danube''-class runabout and can work your way up to a ''Sovereign''-class. It includes the ''Enterprise''-D from "All Good Things..." as a "super ship" that you can only access if you've beaten the whole game (or at least the huge Dominion armada). Romulan Wars The sequel to FlashTrek, Romulan Wars begins in the 22nd century with the Earth-Romulan War. It progresses through the years, passing the TOS era and the TNG era in other levels, landing you in the Star Trek: Nemesis time period, fending off a Borg attack on Earth. The game ends with an interesting note, that reads "Strangely enough, nobody wonders how you lived to be over 400 years old!". Assault Assault was a "Defend the Castle"-type of game, allowing you to build starships that had various special weapons. You accumulated money (yes,money) by destroying enemy ships. You could upgrade your starbase's shields and weaponry as well. Broken Mirror Broken Mirror is the most recently-released game in the FlashTrek series. It is the most extensive and complex game by Vex Xiang. The player chooses from a number of races (Earth Empire, Klingon, Ferengi, and others) and begins as a lowly, insignificant nobody who slowly works their way up through trading and claiming planets for their empire. Broken Mirror 2 This game is still in Beta testing. It will be built on Broken Mirror's engine, and will incorporate many new features. There is no release date as of this writing. External Links *FlashTrek - the original game *FlashTrek: Romulan Wars - sequel to FlashTrek *FlashTrek: Assault Netrek Netrek is a 16-player freeware online multiplayer strategy game, based on the Star Trek Universe. The goal of the game is to conquer the galaxy by joining of the four forces: * Federation * Romulans * Klingons * Orions There are several types of ships available and the player has to fulfil many tasks at the same time. The required software is available for many different operating systems and can be downloaded for free. Star Trek: Rescue! Star Trek: Rescue! 1.6 was an action adventure game for the Macintosh platform of computers released in 1993, and is based on the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was developed by programmer Tom Spreen who lives in Canada, and was the predecessor to the final version of the game, Rescue! 2.0.5. The basis for Rescue! 1.6 is as the name incinuates: to rescue, in this case, to evacuate Federation outposts of their colonists because of a recurring Romulan threat. Players take control of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) which is viewed on the main viewer portion of the game, and beam down away teams to oversee the evacuation, and then proceed to other planets' outposts to the completion of the mission. Players then have the option of staying to destroy the remainder of the Romulan threat, or to end the session of the game. Despite the simplicity of the game plot it has proven to be an incredibly addictive game, particularly at the harder levels. Beginning the Game At the start, players can choose the number of outposts to evacuate in their mission, up to a maximum of nine, as well as the number of Romulan Warbirds they would like to contend against. A higher level of outposts and a higher level of Romulans increases the score a player can achieve. There are three pre-set levels of difficulty: the Cadet's game; the Captain's game; and the Admiral's game. Layout of the Game The game begins with a friendly female voice (sounding somewhat similar to the Enterprises' computer) saying: "Welcome aboard the Enterprise." The lay-out of the game gives the player a wide variety of screens to monitor whilst in play, including: *the main viewer, where the player controls the Enterprise, attacks the Romulans, and beams down away teams to the planets. Players can also click on any area of the screen and hit the enter key, which will move the ship to that position. *long range sensor to see where non-cloaked Warbirds are located, as well as the position of outposts and Starbases. If an outpost which has not been evacuated is being attacked, the number of the planet (1-9) will flash. Players can also click on any part of the long range sensor screen and hit enter, and the ship will automatically warp to that position on the screen. *the weapons console, or tactical, which lists the number of photon torpedoes left on the ship (it starts with ten and can be subsequently replenished by docking with a Starbase. It also provides phaser power reserves, and total ship power, the latter of which drains quickly if the player sets the ship's speed to high warp levels. Here players can adjust the strength of the phasers, from miniumum to maximum. Higher energy settings destroy Warbirds easily, but is a great burden on energy supplies. *the conn screen navigates the ship. There are several automatic commands (such as find nearest outpost, find nearest Romulan, nearest Starbase, and chase mode) which will automatically move the ship to where the player desires. The warp speed level can be adjusted as well as the impulse speed when the player is maneuevering around near planets or Starbases. Players can also manually input a number of degree (0-360) to tell the ship which way to travel; 0 being up, 180 being down, and so on. This is an incredibly handy feature especialy since the game allows you to for example, go left over the edge of the screen on the long range sensors; this will then automatically transport the Enterprise to the far right edge of the screen. Players can also start and stop the engines manually. *the engineering screen tells the player the condition of the various systems on board the ship, such as transporters, warp drive, etc. When the ship is attacked by Romulans, a voice will cry out "Shields!" warning the player to raise shields because attack is imminent. However if the player does not heed the warning in due time, or the ship is just damaged during attack, various systems will be knocked off-line. A player can prioritize repairs by clicking on a small wrench icon, and moving it to where they would like repairs to occur most quickly. Repair times appear in hours (although obviously take mere seconds to repair in some cases). *the text box is just a visual relay of the various actions of the ship, such as course settings, reports of outposts being attacked, and so on. In a very clever move, the programmer allows players to save on energy by reducing the number of stations being used; e.g. by closing all but the main viewer screen, the Enterprise will use far less power in the game. Game Play As noted, the object of the game is to rescue the inhabitants of the outposts and safely evacuate them to a Starbase before being annihilated by the Romulans. This can be an easy task with minimal planets chosen which are close by, or very difficult if the planets are situated far away from each other, thus draining power and perhaps making added docking to the Starbases required. Increased dockings at Starbase decreases one's score, so players tend to avoid this as much as possible. However, the Starbase is also a valuable ally, especially if being followed by a swarm of Romulan ships, and even more so if some of those Romulan ships are the incredibly strong cloaked Superhawk Romulan ships. The Starbase has a high level of hit points and can sustain heavy damage, and can also destroy attacking Warbirds. However, points will be deducted if the Starbase makes the kill for you. Many players often choose to stay to destroy the Romulans after rescuing the colonists. This can be a great way to up one's points, however if a player finds themselves attacked by a swarm, or they lose energy or the use of their weapons in an attack, they will quickly find themselves destroyed, in which the mission automatically ends. Thankfully energy reserves can be replenished by keeping the ship in a static, stationary mode on the screen. However this makes the ship highly prone to Romulan attack. Ending the Game The end of the game can occur in the following ways, after which a report will appear accounting for score, colonists rescued, times docked at Starbase, Romulans destroyed, casualties (on board the ship or of colonists, if any) and length of game play: *destruction of the Enterprise *player quitting *rescuing all the colonists to a Starbase and not pursuing the Romulans, OR *rescuing all the colonists and destroying all the Romulans Sound Effects The sound effects used in the game are all based on those incorporated in the TV show made by Paramount, including the phasers, the transporter, and even the trademark humming of the sensors while the Enterprise moves in warp and impulse. Copyright Issues Mr. Spreen's game was not licensed by Paramount and thus he was challenged by the company. Mr. Spreen's sequel was still very heavily based on the original Rescue! 1.6, but was altered in such a way as to not offend Paramount. It however was not enough and Mr. Spreen did not pursue any other Rescue! versions since that time. Category:Star Trek Fan Fan Fan